Micro/Nanofluidic Devices for Single Cell Analysis, Volume III

Dear Colleagues,

Cells are the most fundamental building blocks for most life forms and play a significant role in coordinating with one another to perform systematic functions in living creatures. However, the cell-to-cell or cell-to-environment behaviors of cells with their organelles and their intracellular physical/biochemical/biological effects are still unknown. To gain insight into these interactions, the ensemble measurement of millions of cells together cannot provide proper information, such as stem cell proliferation and differentiation, neural network coordination, and cardiomyocyte synchronization. Thus, single-cell analysis has emerged in frontier research in the last few decades. To analyze cellular functions, single-cell analysis (SCA) can be conducted by employing miniaturized devices, whose dimension is similar to that of single cells. Micro-/nanofluidic devices with the power to manipulate and detect biosamples, reagents, or biomolecules at the micro-/nano-scale can well fulfill this requirement for SCA. This analysis can be performed by combining capillary electrophoresis (CE) with laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) detection methods, electrochemical detection (ED), flow cytometry, mass spectrometry, etc., thereby providing specific information about cell interactions with high spatial and temporal resolution. Micro-/nanofluidic devices are not only useful for cell manipulation, cell lysis, and cell separation, but also for easily controlling biochemical, electrical, and mechanical parameters for SCA.

This Special Issue invites manuscripts conducting research on integrated micro- or nanosystems dealing with single-cell manipulation, injection, separation, lysis of single cells, and dynamics of single cells using micro-/nanofluidic devices combined with various detection schemes. The role of SCA is recognized as one of the most important pathways for system biology, proteomics, genomics, metabolomics, and fluxomics and can potentially lead to a paradigm shift. Discussions on the application of SCA for biocatalysis, metabolics, and bioprocess engineering, as well as on the future challenges for SCA and its advantages and limitations, are also welcome.

Dr. Tuhin Subhra Santra
Prof. Dr. Fan-Gang Tseng
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Micromachines is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2100 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.